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The monthly 4-hour ZAZENKAI is held on the first Friday Night/Saturday of the month from Saturday morning 8am Japan time (that is New York 6pm to 10pm, Los Angeles 3pm to 7pm (Friday night), London 11pm to 3am and Paris midnight to 4am (early Saturday morning)) ... and is 4 hours long.

You can find the comparative time in Japan for your specific location here (it is generally Saturday morning in the United States, afternoon in Europe, evening or late night in Asia) Times will vary for daylight savings and other circumstances:

THE LIVE FEED WILL BE NETCAST ON GOOGLE+ AT THE ABOVE TIMES AND UP TO 10 PEOPLE MAY JOIN AND SIT FACE TO FACE, LIVE!
If the room is full you may still sit LIVE with a streaming 1 way video that will be embedded and streaming in that Zazenkai post.

However, if it is not possible for you to join 'live' in your location at the appointed times, FEAR NOT, as the entire sitting will be recorded in 'REAL TIME' and available for full participation 'ON DEMAND' at any time after that, no different from the 'live' sitting. (the links will be posted each week in this forum).

As you can see, our Zazenkai consists of chanting the 'Heart Sutra' in English (the words are at the link below), some full floor prostrations in sets of three (please follow along with me ... or a simple Gassho can be substituted if you wish), followed by our Dedication, Zazen twice for 30 minutes each, with 10 minutes of Kinhin in between, and we end the sitting with 'The Verse of Atonement' and 'The Four Vows'.

The 4-hour monthly Zazenkai retreat on the first Saturday of each month runs as follows:

As you can see, there will be 5 periods of Zazen, each 40 minutes long, although several include time for chanting. In between each period of Zazen, there will be a 10 minute period for Kinhin walking (which will also serve for any needed bathroom breaks).

Thechants to be used in our ceremonies (weekly and monthly are a little different) are available at THIS LINK:

I STRONGLY SUGGEST THAT YOU POSITION YOUR ZAFU ON THE FLOOR IN A PLACE WHERE YOU ARE NOT STARING DIRECTLY AT THE COMPUTER SCREEN, BUT CAN GLANCE OVER AND SEE THE SCREEN WHEN NECESSARY. YOUR ZAFU SHOULD ALSO BE IN A POSITION WHERE YOU CAN SEE THE COMPUTER SCREEN WHILE STANDING IN FRONT OF THE ZAFU FOR THE CEREMONIES, AND HAVE ROOM FOR BOWING AND KINHIN.
ALSO, REMEMBER TO SET YOUR COMPUTER (& SCREEN SAVER) SO THAT IT DOES NOT SHUT OFF DURING THE 4 HOURS.

Please be patient with technical glitches and little annoyances ... as all are just part of the experience and practice!

We don't accept "blind" join requests because a majority of them are not actual members. Contacting myself or Myoku lets us know you are a real person. I also don't generally add people until they have uploaded an avatar.

Gassho,
Dosho

Sat today

Originally Posted by Dave d

Hi can you please add me too,tried last night but still not been accepted.thanks
gasho
dave d

We don't accept "blind" join requests because a majority of them are not actual members. Contacting myself or Myoku lets us know you are a real person. I also don't generally add people until they have uploaded an avatar.